In this bonus episode of Courage Becomes Her, we continue our summer reads series with Amanda Held Opelt to talk about her new book, Holy Unhappiness: God, Goodness, and the Myth of the Blessed Life. Amanda talks about how disappointment, restlessness, and the feeling that life had let her down led her to realize that she thought she was entitled to happiness. An opponent of the health and wealth prosperity gospel, Amanda came to see that she was believing a similar ideology about happiness, that since she had done “all the right things” that God would grant her emotional prosperity and a blessed life.

 Amanda Held Opelt is a speaker, songwriter, and author of two books, A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing and Holy Unhappiness. She believes in the power of faith, community, ritual, worship, and shared stories to heal even our deepest wounds. Amanda has spent the last 15 years in the non-profit and humanitarian aid sectors.  She lives in the mountains of Boone, North Carolina with her husband and young two daughters. Please take the time to connect with her through Instagram or her website.

 Enter the giveaway to win a copy of Holy Unhappiness, as sponsored by Worthy Publishing, through the August 11th post on Laurel’s Instagram.

Resources from my conversation with Amanda:

·         Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

·         The Evangelical Imagination by Karen Swallow Prior

·         You are Not Your Own by Alan Noble

·         Strange Rites by Tara Isabella Burton

·         Self-Made by Tara Isabella Burton

·         Amanda’s books:

o   A Hole in the World

o   Holy Unhappiness

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